Reflections upon a new definition of life

被引:3
|
作者
Gomez-Marquez, Jaime [1 ]
机构
[1] Univ Santiago de Compostela, Fac Biol, Dept Biochem & Mol Biol, Bldg CIBUS, Santiago De Compostela 15782, Galicia, Spain
来源
SCIENCE OF NATURE | 2023年 / 110卷 / 06期
关键词
Life definition; Lifeless living things; Viruses; Artificial life; Extraterrestrial life; System-process duality; SELF-ORGANIZATION; EVOLUTION; SYMMETRY; ORIGIN;
D O I
10.1007/s00114-023-01882-5
中图分类号
O [数理科学和化学]; P [天文学、地球科学]; Q [生物科学]; N [自然科学总论];
学科分类号
07 ; 0710 ; 09 ;
摘要
What is life? Multiple definitions have been proposed to answer this question, but unfortunately, none of them has reached the consensus of the scientific community. Here, the strategy used to define what life is was based on first establishing which characteristics are common to all living systems (organic nature, entropy-producing system, self-organizing, reworkable pre-program, capacity to interact and adapt, reproduction and evolution) and from them constructing the definition taking into account that reproduction and evolution are not essential for life. On this basis, life is defined as an interactive process occurring in entropy-producing, adaptive, and informative (organic) systems. An unforeseen consequence of the inseparable duality between the system (living being) and the process (life) is the interchangeability of the elements of the definition to obtain other equally valid alternatives. In addition, in the light of this definition, cases of temporarily lifeless living systems (viruses, dormant seeds, and ultracold cells) are analyzed, as well as the status of artificial life entities and the hypothetical nature of extraterrestrial life. All living systems are perishable because the passage of time leads to increasing entropy. Life must create order by continuously producing disorder and exporting it to the environment and so we move and stay in the phase transition between order and chaos, far from equilibrium, thanks to the input of energy from the outside. However, the passage of time eventually leads us to an end in which life disappears and entropy increases.
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页数:13
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